544 



naturally* thousands of seeds, the germination 

 of which has just commenced, should be gather- 

 ed, and placed as in a nursery in boxes filled 

 with the mould, in which they have begun to 

 vegetate. The young plants, sheltered from the 

 rays of the sun by the leaves of musacese or of 

 palm-trees, might be transported in canoes or 

 on rafts. It is well known how difficult it is, 

 notwithstanding the use of chlorine, which 

 I have indicated elsewhere, to make seeds 

 with a horny perisperm germinate in Europe ; 

 such as the palm-trees, the coffeaceee, the quin- 

 quinas, and the large ligneous nuts, the kernel 

 of which contains an oil that becomes rancid. 

 All these difficulties would be vanquished, if 

 only such seeds were transported, as had ger- 

 minated under the tree itself. In this manner 

 we succeeded in carrying a great number of 

 very rare plants, for instance, the coumarouna 

 odora, or the Tonga bean, from the Cataracts 

 of the Oroonoko to Angostura, and spreading 

 them in the surrounding plantations. 



One of the four canoes, which had taken the 

 Indians to the gathering of the juvias, was filled 

 in great part with that species of reeds (carices), 

 of which the sarbacans are made. These reeds 

 were from fifteen to seventeen feet long, yet no 

 trace of a knot for the insertion of leaves and 

 branches was perceived. They were quite 

 straight, smooth without, and perfectly cylin- 



